Mitigation Banks

Construction activities near streams and wetlands often result in unavoidable damage to those resources. When this occurs, the developer is required to mitigate for those lost resources. Developers can purchase the required number of mitigation credits from an approved mitigation bank to offset their permitted wetland and stream impacts. The bank owner bears all the risks and costs for developing, constructing, maintaining and monitoring the restored streams and wetlands at the mitigation bank site. Mitigation banks streamline the water quality permitting process because they are constructed and fully functional in advance of the stream and wetland impacts for which they are intended to mitigate. In addition, mitigation banks are generally large scale restoration efforts that will provide greater ecological benefits than numerous, small on-site mitigation projects.